Free Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made by Andy Hertzfeld Page A

object-oriented programming environments with comprehensive class libraries, local area networks, laser printers, email--that taking a "normal" job in industry was guaranteed to be a letdown. But in talks with Adele Goldberg, one of the senior members of LRG, and my good friend Rachel Rutherford, I realized that I really did need to try something new--that I'd regret it if I didn't leave the comfortable and familiar environment of PARC.
    I began interviewing at a variety of companies in the valley; most were forgettable. Then I remembered about Larry Tesler at Apple, and about Doug Fairbairn at VTI, so I contacted them both.
    Apple was interesting; Larry was working on the Lisa, which was starting to look like a real computer, but for some reason it didn't appeal to me. At one point, though, Larry realized that I'd be a better fit in the Mac group, and introduced me to Andy Hertzfeld. Andy (the "soul" of the Mac software group) showed me some demos that were so amazing that I somehow thought that they didn't really need me--that the software was almost done! But I was impressed and intrigued, and mulled it over...
    Meanwhile, I went to interview at VTI. The people there were wonderful. I'd be working with folks I knew and respected, and Doug even offered me a $15K signing bonus, a huge amount of money for a recent college graduate. I'd be working on advanced chip design tools, a new area for me, and it would be an interesting challenge. So I accepted the job. That was Thursday.
    On Friday evening, I got a phone call. "Bruce, it's Steve. What do you think about Apple?" It was Steve Jobs. "Well, Steve, Apple's cool, but I accepted a job at VTI."
    "You did what? Forget that, you get down here tomorrow morning, we have a lot more things to show you. Be at Apple at 9am." Steve was adamant. I thought I'd go down, go through the motions, and then tell him that I'd made up my mind and was going to VTI.
    Steve switched on the Reality Distortion Field full-force. I met with seemingly everyone on the Mac team, from Andy to Rod Holt to Jerry Manock to the other software engineers, and back to Steve. Two full days of demos, drawings of the various designs, marketing presentations--I was overwhelmed.
    On Monday I called Doug Fairbairn at VTI and told him I had changed my mind.
    I was going to join Apple, where we would change the world with a little computer called the Macintosh.

Desk Ornaments
by Andy Hertzfeld in October 1981

    Some original Desk Accessories
    One of the first architectural decisions that Bud and I made for the Macintosh system software in the spring of 1981 was that we were only going to try to run one application at a time. We barely had enough RAM or screen space to do even that, and we thought that we'd benefit from the resultant simplifications. Besides, multi-tasking was supposed to be Lisa's forte, and we didn't want to usurp all of the reasons for buying a Lisa.
    Bud Tribble was usually on an even keel, but one afternoon in the fall of 1981 he came into my office, unusually excited. "You know, I've been thinking about it. Even if we can only run one major application at a time, there's no reason that we can't also have some little miniature applications running in their own windows at the same time."
    That sounded intriguing to me. "What kind of little programs? How are they different?", I wondered.
    Bud smiled. "You'd want tiny apps that were good at a specific, limited function that complements the main application. Like a little calculator, for example, that looked like a real calculator. Or maybe an alarm clock, or a notepad for jotting down text. Since the entire screen is supposed to be a metaphorical desktop, the little programs are desk ornaments, adorning the desktop with useful features."
    "But where do we draw the line?", I asked. "What are the differences between an ornament and a real application?"
    "Well, ornaments have to fit into the world of the main application", Bud responded, "but not the other